So I was wondering if there was any logographic/pictographic/ideographic constructed writing systems usable for writing. The only ones I heard of were alternative forms of chinese characters to write other languages, but no 'fictional' scripts so far. Probably people don't have time for that, so many symbols needed to be invented, I can understand that. However I think I will do a logographic/ideographic system; for the definition of logographic: symbols that represent the smallest meaningful part of the laguage; but also it's a little ideographic, beacause one character represents one idea rather than one word, like in chinese.

So the thing is, it may be much characters to invent and learn, but there are much advanteges of it. For e.g. speeds up reading, since you automatically read one word at a time, and becasue it is not based on pronunciation, there's less or no subvocalization (the voice in your head reading the text), which would slow down the reading and make understanding and focusing harder. Also logographs are really neat, takes up less space, and more suitable to represent a short message, idea, saying, word of wisdom, etc.

What I would have trouble, that writing new terms or names would need additional characters, so I decided to add syllabic characters too, which also contain single sounds, and these are used to represent basic grammatical terms, auxilliaries, names, etc., like in japanese (well, except for the names, I heard they use kanji even for that). I plan it to be relatively simple, meaning that it doesn't contain too many (or too long) strokes, and the characters are either semi- or fully cursive. I'll update when I did some of it (which won't be very soon ).

So what do you think of (the idea of) logographic writing systems? Would you learn one? Would you create one? Too much trouble, or too much coolness? Is it worthy/advantageous to use/develope, or a waste of time?

Neofellus wrote: ... but there are much advanteges of it. For e.g. speeds up reading, since you automatically read one word at a time,

I personally see only one benefit of such a system - difficulty to decypher the text for the people who are not supposed to read the message. But obviosly some cryptosystems are way more effective for that purpose. Regardless of type of a script (phonetic or logographic), even when the amount of characters ascends above 30, the text turns very quickly into unreadable mess. I suppose one need not less than some hundreds of characters to represent even the most usable objects, qualities and actions? And what about synonyms?

Neofellus wrote:So what do you think of (the idea of) logographic writing systems? Would you learn one? Would you create one? Too much trouble, or too much coolness? Is it worthy/advantageous to use/develope, or a waste of time?

I think it would be interesting idea when we first have some artificial system of meanings with strict rules for the order they come, which is specially designed to write it in logographic script. I suppose it can be only somthing really minimalistic.

The core concept is that of this trinity: mind, body, and soul. So the core symbols and meanings stem from these three concepts. From there, each concept can be expanded to encompass all sounds and meanings in the universe. There are two parts: the 3 core glyphs and the 3 locations to place the glyphs. The main vowels associated with mind, body, and soul are respectively 'i', 'a', and 'u', when the glyphs are in their original locations. Other vowel sounds are created by moving the symbols to different locations. Consonants are formed with two glyphs in a single final graph, or letter.

Besides mind, body, and soul, other concepts can be derived. Regarding time, mind means future, body the present, and soul is tied to the past. The color of mind is blue, body is green, and soul is red. And so on for every thought, idea and thing. Words are formed by combining one or more graphs--letters--in a sequence that imparts the idea or thing. Take the name of the language, Liyahu. 'Li' stands for mind, because 'i' is the main sound of mind, and 'l' is the main consonant that consists of two mind glyphs. Same for 'ya' and 'hu' respectively to mean body and soul. Most words are made of two or three letters, such that the consonants and vowel convey the state, action, or changes as defined by the word. For instance, 'nga' means 'skeleton', where 'ng' consists of the body and soul glyphs. It means a physical structure that has an empty soul. The 'a' has just a body glyph and here it means the skeleton reinforces other physical objects or materials.

There is an official script, however, the concept is not limited to one writing system. Regardless of which writing system, they all have the same meanings and sounds. For example, at http://shenafu.com/smf/index.php?topic=94.msg433#msg433, you can see alternative forms of writing and communications that follow the core concept of the trinity. Variant 1 is in semaphore form, suitable for use on flags et al. Variant 2 is shorthand for quick writing. I've tried it, and it's quite fun to write in. Variant 4 is more like cursive where the lines connect without lifting the pen from the paper. Variant 7 most resembles the original script, but also designed to be easy to write. Variant 11 is a linear script, such that all symbols connect across a center line.